American Cancer Society honors Isaiah J. Fidler

For his basic science discoveries and contributions to the treatment of cancer metastasis, Isaiah J. Fidler, D.V.M., Ph.D., has earned the 2013 American Cancer Society Medal of Honor for Basic Research.  A professor in Cancer Biology and director of MD Anderson’s Metastasis Research Laboratory, Fidler was honored at the ACS 100th-anniversary celebration in Atlanta.

“I’m deeply honored to receive this award, and I share it with colleagues, collaborators and trainees who worked diligently and creatively to uncover the vital details of metastasis,” he says.

Fidler is internationally renowned for exposing the origins of metastasis, the processes by which these cells spread and thrive in other organs, the molecular diversity that makes them so hard to treat and the supporting role of their surrounding microenvironment. His current research addresses cancers that spread to the brain, which occur in about 170,000 U.S. patients annually, are virtually untreatable and are relatively understudied.

Fidler, known to friends as Josh, holds the R.E. “Bob” Smith Distinguished Chair in Cell Biology. He came to MD Anderson in 1983, serving as the founding chair of Cancer Biology until 2008. He is a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and was inducted this year into the AACR Academy.  Fidler is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recipient of  the Nature Publishing Group’s 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award.